Your customers may not know what your product is - and they may not care

Google discovers that less than 8% of those polled have an understanding of the term "browser"

Three Minds -- Organic, June 21, 2009 — This video by Google illustrates several issues that have been plaguing product and brand managers, UxDs (user-experience designers) and IAs (information architects) and most obviously, the general public. Google asks "What is a browser," only to find that less than 8% of those polled have an understanding of the term. (It is, by the way, "a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web" - Wikipedia; e.g. Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft's Internet Explorer (The big blue 'E'))

Google Searches for Ways to Keep Big Ideas at Home†

Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2009 — Google Inc. is revamping how it develops and prioritizes new products, giving employees a pipeline to the company's top brass amid worries about losing its best people and promising ideas to start-ups.

The Mountain View, Calif., company famously lets its engineers spend one day a week on projects that aren't part of their jobs. But Google has lacked a formal process for senior executives to review those efforts, and some ideas have languished. Others have slipped away when employees left the company.

Google Tries Viral Campaign to Goose Interest in Chrome†

Pushes Its New Web Browser With 11 YouTube Videos After Low-Key Rollout

Advertising Age, April 29, 2009 — Why would Google take on Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla in the web-browser war and not try to win it? That question has been asked since Google ambled into the Safari-Explorer-Firefox derby last fall with its own entry called Chrome, but took a remarkably low-key approach to marketing it.

Next Big Thing

Hub, January 12, 2009 — Will the Great Recession bring out the best and brightest? A roundtable discussion featuring Michael Mendenhall of Hewlett-Packard, Patia McGrath of General Electric, John Fish of AstraZeneca and Patrick Meyer of Now Inc.

YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money

New York Times, December 10, 2008 — Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living.

One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job

MySpace reaches out to Google in bid to extend reach, counter Facebook expansion

Chicago Tribune, December 9, 2008 — MySpace.com is teaming up with Internet search leader Google Inc. in a campaign to extend MySpace's reach and counter the expansion of their common rival Facebook Inc.

The alliance, unveiled late Monday in Paris, builds upon MySpace's seven-month-old effort to make it easier for the 127 million worldwide users of its online hangout to connect with their social circles while they're at other Internet destinations.

Papa John's One-Day Google Test Was Pie-Seller

Marketing Daily, December 8, 2008 — Papa John's launched a one-day Web campaign with a display ad on Google last Friday that resulted in online weekend sales that were up between 15% and 20% over a typical weekend, the pizza giant says. Mobile orders also rose.

New Targeting Methods For Reaching U.S. Hispanics

MediaPost Publications, December 4, 2008 — In a recent report from Pew Hispanic Center, U.S. Hispanics represented over 50% of the U.S. population growth since 2000. In our current economic climate, one would think that that be the kind of growth that marketers would aggressively seek out. While Hispanic media investment overall has grown considerably, especially television, the online ad segment has under-indexed relative to general market online spending even though the U.S. Hispanic audience is more open to brand suggestions and advertising messages, as shown in a recent eMarketer report.

A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation†

Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2008 — At Procter & Gamble Co., the corporate culture is so rigid, employees jokingly call themselves "Proctoids." In contrast, Google Inc. staffers are urged to wander the halls on company-provided scooters and brainstorm on public whiteboards.

Now, this odd couple thinks they have something to gain from one another — so they've started swapping employees. So far, about two-dozen staffers from the two companies have spent weeks dipping into each other's staff training programs and sitting in on meetings where business plans get hammered out. The initiative has drawn little notice. Previously, neither company had granted this kind of access to outsiders.

Google, Campbell Soup, J&J Tops in CSR

Marketing Charts, November 10, 2008 — Google, Campbell Soup, and Johnson & Johnson top the list of American companies that the US public sees as most socially responsible, according to the 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Index (CSRI), from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute.